Who am I?
I am Josef Eriksson, founder of Built Strong and perhaps one of the biggest proponents of high-rep bench press training for building strength.
I started out in the strength training world fairly early, learning a lot at a young age. But it wasn’t until I was 14 that I really began taking it seriously, even though I had gotten a feel for it from the age of 9. I wasn’t an athletic kid, quite the opposite. From the age of 9 to 14, I struggled with many physical problems, often being on and off crutches and gaining a lot of weight.
When I was 14, I decided to push myself in the bench press. My lifetime goal was to one day bench press 120 kg / 264 lbs. Little did I know that I would reach that and much more.
I didn’t develop fast. After a year of training, I my PR was 96 kg / 214 lbs and weighed over 100 kg / 220 lbs. I trained in my garage, mostly with my dad and a friend. When I started getting close to a 100 kg / 220 lbs bench press, I felt that I needed to lose weight. I began taking walks while keeping up my training. Some time later, I finally benched 100 kg / 220 lbs while weighing 95.2 kg / 210 lbs, the first time I benched my bodyweight. It took me a full year of bench pressing several times a week to get there.
I wanted to start competing but felt too weak and too heavy. I began adding short runs to my walks. At first, I couldn’t run very far, not even to the end of the street, which was only 400 meters. But I stuck with it and lost 10 kg / 22 lbs before my first competition, about 10 weeks after that 100 kg / 220 lbs bench press.
I competed for the first time in January 2009, weighing 85.1 kg / 188 lbs. My goal was to break the Swedish sub-junior bench press record, which stood at 135 kg / 298 lbs in the 75 kg / 165 lbs class. I had just gone from being a 110 kg / 242 lbs lifter, to 100 kg / 220 lbs, and now a 90 kg / 198 lbs lifter. In the spring of 2010, I benched 125 kg / 275 lbs in the 82.5 kg / 182 lbs class. I only had six months left before aging out of the sub-junior category, and the record had increased to 135.5 kg / 299 lbs. I knew I had to make a change.
I felt desperate. In January 2010, I benched 127.5 kg / 281 lbs in training and 120 kg / 264 lbs in competition at 82.5 kg / 182 lbs bodyweight. In August 2010, I benched 130 kg / 286 lbs in training. I decided to take some weight off the bar and increase my reps. My 5s, 3s, and singles were gone. Instead, I started doing sets of over 10 reps. During late August and September, I chased 15 reps at 100 kg / 220 lbs. I only managed 14, but it was still progress from the 11 or 12 reps I had managed a month earlier.
In about eight weeks, I went from 130 kg / 286 lbs, which I had hit for a max single in training, to a 140 kg / 308 lbs training bench and a 135 kg / 298 lbs paused bench. I had been stuck at 130 kg / 286 lbs for over six months. My bodyweight was even lower at the time, around 74 kg / 163 lbs, and sometimes below that. I had found something new, and I wanted more.
To fast forward a bit, I managed to break the national bench press record for sub-juniors with 136 kg / 300 lbs. I also benched 140 kg / 308 lbs in a full meet the following week, weighing 75.4 kg / 166 lbs at the time. This was in 2010. In 2017, I placed second at the World Championships in bench press, and later that same year won the European Championships, setting a new European record. In 2021, I won the World Championships in bench press. I have multiple medals from both European and World Championships in bench press. At my peak in training, with my glutes on the bench, I have lifted 250 kg / 551 lbs.
Besides strength training, I also took up running in 2008 when I wanted to lose weight. When I weighed 105 kg / 231 lbs, I was able to run 20 km in 1 hour and 47 minutes. My best 10 km time is 39:38 from when I was a lightweight teenager. At the age of 32 and weighing 87 kg / 192 lbs, I officially ran 5 km in 20:55 and 10 km in 43:25.
How I started out as a coach
When I started coaching depends on how you look at it. From the time I was 12 and had training equipment in my room, I helped friends learn their way around the weights. That continued until I was 16 and joined the powerlifting club. Like most lifters in a club, I helped beginners by teaching technique and writing programs the best way I knew how. I got a lot of school friends to come train, and I enjoyed helping them.
I got my first email in 2011 from someone outside my circle who wanted me to help with training. So you could say I’ve been an online coach since then. During the spring of 2011, I coached three people remotely. In 2013, I started charging for helping people I didn’t know — around 15 to 20 clients at most. During this time, I also held some small workshops.
At the end of 2014, I noticed that many people wanted me to coach them, so I started a company and became a part-time coach. In 2016, I realized I could do this full-time, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I quit my job and went all in on the strength training business.
Me as a coach
I have coached many successful lifters at both national and international levels. Since 2015, I have trained lifters competing internationally and taking medals on the world stage. In bench press specifically, I have trained numerous athletes who have achieved great success and stood on the podium at the National, European, and World Championships.
I have mostly trained people in Sweden, primarily in my powerlifting club. One thing I take pride in is coaching my training partner Karolina Arvidson to her first world title after she had competed for a decade. She actually won two in a row. I also brought Vilma Olson into powerlifting and trained her to break the sub-junior, junior, and open world records in the squat.
Other people close to me, like my wife, brother, and neighbor, have also achieved great results through my training. My younger brother benched 170 kg / 375 lbs in a full meet when the national sub-junior bench-only record stood at 167.5 kg / 369 lbs. My wife has done 3 reps at 100 kg / 220 lbs at a bodyweight of 63 kg / 139 lbs.
One day, my neighbor came over with his 17-year-old son, Neo Yngström, who wanted to start training with me. He has since won several open and junior national championships in bench press, placed second at the European Championships, and even won the Junior World Championships.
I have trained lifters of all ages to win regional, national, and international medals and championship titles in both bench press and powerlifting. I’ve also coached Marcus Yngvesson, Sweden’s Strongest Man 2021. In the two previous years, he had finished seventh and struggled with the Atlas Stones, his weakest event. But in 2021, he not only won the overall competition, he also took first place in the Atlas Stones.
For me, this was proof that my training philosophy and methods are applicable not only to bench press or powerlifting, but also to developing general functional strength.
I haven’t only coached powerlifters and bench press specialists. Most of the people I’ve worked with over the years have been recreational athletes and people who simply want to train for themselves and reach personal goals. These goals have included improving their squat, bench press, and deadlift, but also bodyweight movements like chin-ups, dips, and the military press, and even running. I’ve also worked with people whose main goal is to build muscle, gain strength, and lose fat.
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